Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!att!rutgers!cs.utexas.edu!execu!sequoia!rpp386!jfh
From: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F. Haugh II)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: crime confusion
Message-ID: <18688@rpp386.cactus.org>
Date: 3 Nov 90 19:08:25 GMT
References: <1990Oct30.035606.1282@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU> <4576@rsiatl.UUCP> <15810@letni.UUCP> <1990Nov2.202722.13748@ico.isc.com>
Reply-To: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org (John F. Haugh II)
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In article <1990Nov2.202722.13748@ico.isc.com> rcd@ico.isc.com (Dick Dunn) writes:
>The :-) is missing.  This is wrong, of course.  There are various sorts of
>laws which you are expected to obey.  Not every violation of a law is a
>crime.  There are a few traffic laws which, if violated, will get you
>arrested.  Most won't.  You'll have to pay a fine, but you won't go to
>jail.  You'll have a traffic-violation record, but that's not a criminal
>record.  Best to keep the two straight.

I believe this statement is wrong.  When I enlisted in the Navy in 1981
they asked about =every= arrest, =including= minor traffic infractions
from when I was just starting out driving.  In New Orleans, for example,
parking tickets were part of the criminal code.  The judges knew the
city would be unable to legally convict an owner of a car that was parked
illegally because there was no proof that the owner was also the driver.
In fact, the standard defense was to claim that you weren't driving the
car at the time the ticket was issued.  Over a several year period there
was not a single case decided in favor of the city when this ploy was
used. Finally, parking tickets were moved out of the criminal code and
into the civil code.
-- 
John F. Haugh II                             UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!rpp386!jfh
Ma Bell: (512) 832-8832                           Domain: jfh@rpp386.cactus.org
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